Joshua Bell

I wonder if Joshua Bell's parents thought about his name much when he was born. It's so easy to say, easy to remember, looks good in print, etc. I know Maria Carey's mother picked her name so she'd have a starlette sounding moniker, but I digress...I wonder if his momma had even the faintest notion that her son would be a violin virtuoso back in 1967 when she gave birth to him. I mean, I'm sure his parents have musical aptitude, but they were both psychologists living in Indiana. Yo-Yo Ma, by contrast, was born from a composer/conductor dad and opera singer mom. Did his parents look at each other and go:
"hot damn, we've got *great* genes...let's procreate and make ourselves an ubermensch"
???
Who knows? But, it's not difficult for me to blurb out, fluke or not, the world is very lucky to have such a beautiful individual.

On a different note, look at his freaking form at age 5. My bow arm was way worse at the age of 20...


I can easily say the concert I attended this past Sunday at Bass Concert Hall with Joshua Bell performing the Beethoven Violin Concerto in D was the best ever. Yes, dear readers, even better than all the Nine Inch Nails concerts I've attended in the past put together.

I said this in my music blog but I was really struck by his stage presence. It's isn't piercing like Midori's, but rather (and someone is going to shoot me for saying this) emotive. He sways to the music with his eyes closed, completely shutting out the audience and yet when he performs, every audience member is completely drawn in. I've never really experienced a musician who was able to connect with his audience without ever looking *at* the audience. That's how amazing his playing is.

On a more vapid note, good God, he's beautiful! He's only a couple of years younger than Trent (what is with all those fillings?) And since about age 16, Josh has pretty much remained the same looks wise. Cute. Mom went to the concert with me, and boy did she hog the binoculars. By the end of the show, she was able to report the thread count of his dark blue button up shirt. I kid, of course, but only just a little.